...Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather
a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favors
the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy...
--Pericles' Funeral Oration, 431 B.C.

Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right
here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders
are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our
freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each
other. --George W. Bush, September 20, 2001

first quotation is from a speech given by the Athenian leader Pericles after
the opening battles of the Peloponnesian War. Such funerals were public rituals
in ancient Athens and Pericles used the occasion to make a classic statement of
the value of democracy. The second quotation needs no explanation. Only fools
and liberals believe that the war in Iraq is about oil or anything other than
preserving our American freedoms at home.

So why the quotation from the dead past? Many agree that the ancient Athenian
democracy was lost because of imperialistic expansionism and an unnecessary foreign
war. The golden age of Athens --that flowering of democracy, art, literature,
and philosophy-- came to a premature end with the ruinous 30-year war with
neighboring Sparta. Some liberals and democrats today argue that America is,
likewise, losing our Democracy at home in the prosecution of an ill-considered
war of global military and business expansion.

Certainly there are some parallels. But equally certain, upon a more careful
look, are the differences. The blame-America-first, cut-and-run crowd also saw
parallels between the Peloponnesian War and the Cold War, but they were wrong.
American freedom prevailed in that global conflict. And the demagogues in congress
now demanding immediate withdrawal from Iraq fail to note that the downfall of
Athens was not Pericles' policy of strong Athenian military action against foreign
threats. No, the destruction of Athens was Alcibiades, that calamity of a man,
who thought that greatness consisted in following, not leading, public opinion.

Later this month, I'll be teaching a seven-week course on the Peloponnesian
War at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. We'll use as our primary source
the war reporting of Thucydides, an Athenian combatant. We'll also attempt
to understand the character and motivation of the Athenian leaders Pericles
and Nicias, of the Spartan general Lysander, and of the brilliant but unprincipled
Alcibiades as reported in the writings of later Greek historian Plutarch.
For more information see www.ccae.org.